I see often people say that the distro you are using doesn’t matter. One can turn any distro into another. And I do not agree with that. If that was true, why do we even have so many distributions? I always said, if distros don’t matter…

  • … why distro hop?
  • … why don’t you use Ubuntu then?
  • … why don’t you recommend Archlinux to a newcomer?
  • … why don’t you use Kali Linux as a server?
  • … why don’t you use Batocera or SteamOS as your daily driver?
  • … why do you trust a community distro more than a corporate distro? (or vice versa)

I don’t think that distros only matter to newcomers. Maybe it matters for experienced users even more.

  • sudoer777@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    13 hours ago

    choosing a distro with specialised security hardening (immutable systems, Nix, Qubes, Bazzite) does matter; most of these will make new users unhappy or even question their sanity.

    Out of curiosity, as someone who’s never used Bazzite/other uBlue/SilverBlue/etc, what makes it difficult for new users? I definitely agree with Nix and Qubes though (and SecureBlue to some extent).

    • Taasz/Woof@piefed.socialEnglish
      1·
      4 hours ago

      There’s a ton of added friction when doing things outside the basic ‘install Flatpak app’. Security generally comes at the price of being difficult to use.

      For new users it also means virtually every guide or there on fixing an issue or installing extra software won’t apply.

    • [object Object]@lemmy.ca
      1·
      6 hours ago

      If you install home brew 90% of the issues go away.

      The problem is that most Linux software assumes it can do whatever it wants, and immutable distros do not let you write to the system files.

      This creates confusion, because you see a guide for Fedora and it said dnf install xyz, but dnf doesn’t work. The solution is to add it to your image tree (no) or to create a toolbox with that package (complicated, requires setup, gets complicated if your tool needs access to Wayland for clipboard or something).

      Bazzite solves this by using brew, which is a package manager built for macOS which has had immutable systems for years. Brew solves most of the issues.

      For me by the time I went immutable it just made more sense to go full declarative with nix, but nix is also a steeper learning curve.

    • IratePirate@feddit.org
      10·
      12 hours ago

      Basically, anything that isn’t packaged as a flatpak needs to be installed from the CLI using distrobox containers, which will go over the heads of the majority of new users.

      • Fecundpossum@lemmy.worldEnglish
        191·
        12 hours ago

        I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to bonk the immutable Stans over the head with this logic, but it never works. They install bazzite, play their game of choice on steam and occasionally use their web browser and “ALL NEW USERS MUST USE BAZZITE ITS SO EASY”

        Any distro is easy when you use it like a fucking Sony PlayStation.

          • EchoDelta_9@programming.dev
            1·
            10 hours ago

            FWIW, uBlue has been brewing for almost three years now for their CLI stuff: see this issue tracker and this blogpost from Bluefin’s creator.

            The distrobox workflow overall has mostly been superseded by better alternatives[1]. Though, for completeness’ sake, openSUSE’s atomic offering continues to heavily rely on Distrobox. But, in their defense, I think their atomic offerings are simply better[2] suited for it.

            1. There’s sysext with its (WIP) manager, Brew Tap to tap into homebrew casks and some peeps even use coldbrew. And last, but definitely not least, nix support has improved over the years. And if you just want to use dnf, RakuOS’ innovative hybrid design allows just that; an image-based core you can’t touch (like the other ‘immutables’), but dnf works and is applied through a persistent overlay. ↩︎

            2. Fedora’s container images are tied to its major release versions. Hence, every 7-13 months you’re required to set them up from scratch if you’d like to continue using them 😅. Even if this process can be streamlined, it’s IMO very cumbersome regardless. In openSUSE’s case, the containers are based on Tumbleweed. Which, has a rolling release cadence. Hence, it was meant to be used indefinitely. ↩︎

    • EchoDelta_9@programming.dev
      1·
      13 hours ago

      Not the one you asked, but I think the answer lies in the bold part:

      most of these will make new users unhappy or even question their sanity.

      For example, I can’t imagine any of the uBlue projects causing major difficulties. Though, edge cases do exist; adding kernel mods can still be a bitch, even if there are efforts to improve this.